Caviar was once served as an appetizer in saloons of the Old West. In another time it was considered extremely valuable and only suitable to be served to royalty and the upper class. But what exactly is caviar? Why is it so highly prized and so expensive? Here are the facts on where caviar comes from and what all the fuss is about.

Caviar refers to the salted eggs (roe) of the fish species, sturgeon. Caviar comes from the Persian word Khaviar which means "bearing eggs". Some eggs from other species ( such as salmon, paddlefish, whitefish, and lumpfish) may be labeled caviar if the name of the fish is included. The three main types of caviar beluga, sevruga, and osetra, refer to the sturgeon species the caviar comes from. Beluga, the largest eggs, comes from the species Huso huso.Huso huso typically weigh 80 to 400 pounds when harvested and may weigh up to 2,000 pounds. 15 percent of its weight is eggs. The female Huso huso doesn't bear eggs until around 25 years old and may live up to 150 years. Beluga has a rich, creamy flavor and delicate texture. Its rarity, however, is what makes it the most esteemed of all caviars. Sevruga caviar is obtained from Acipenser stellatus. These small sturgeon are usually under 50 pounds. Sevruga is light gray in color and has a creamy texture and strong flavor. Osetra (Osciotr), the rare golden caviar (or Imperial caviar), comes from Acipenser guldenstaedti. These sturgeon range in size from 40 to 160 pounds. Although the golden caviar is highly prized, the eggs of this species are often more brownish in color. The caviar has a distinctive nutty flavor.

Most caviar production is centered in the Caspian Sea, with the two main producers being Russia and Iran (along with the countries of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan). Sturgeon, however, is not confined to this area. There are at least 50 species in the northern hemisphere and may also be found in North America, China, and France. Major importers of caviar are the United States (20% of Caspian Sea exports), Switzerland, Japan, and the European Union (mostly France, Belgium, Germany, and the UK).

All sturgeon are endangered or threatened due to over fishing, poaching, black market trading, and habitat loss. Currently only two sturgeon species are banned from harvesting, Acipenser brevirostrum and Acipenser sturio. Other species are protected by CITES. CITES stands for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Countries may export caviar if they can prove that doing so is not detrimental to the survival of the species. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service must inspect all caviar coming into the United States. Their forensics laboratories have methods of determining the species and country of origin of the caviar.

Malossol refers to caviar that has very little salt. With modern refrigeration and sanitation techniques, the amount of salt needed as a preservative is not as great as it once was.

At the beginning of the 19th Century, the United States was one of the greatest producers of caviar in the world. Because of over fishing, commercial sturgeon harvesting was banned early in our history. Today, mostly through farm-raised varieties, caviar production has returned in America. Some American caviar is very high in quality and has been compared favorably to wild Caspian caviar.

Paddlefish is a large freshwater fish, Polyodon spathula, of the Mississippi valley, also called spoonbill or duckbill and named for its flattened, paddle-shaped snout. The largest specimens weigh well over 150 lb (67.5 kg) and reach 6 ft (183 cm) in length. The snout may be a third of the length of the body; it is equipped with sense organs that assist the fish in finding its prey of small crustaceans, which it strains out with gill rakers (see gill ). Paddlefishes are primitive; unlike most modern fishes, they have skins with reduced scales, almost wholly cartilaginous skeletons, and upturned tail fins. They are uniform leaden gray in color. Valued as food fish, their greenish black eggs, like the more highly valued ones of the distantly related sturgeon , are used to make caviar . A Chinese species found in the Chang (Yangtze) River is said to grow to 20 ft (610 cm). Paddlefishes are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Osteichthyes, order Acipenseriformes, family Polyodontidae.

Hackleback caviar is often called the American equivalent to Russian sevruga caviar, though it is less expensive. It is harvested from either hackleback or paddlefish sturgeon. Like all caviar, hackleback caviar refers to fish roe or fish eggs, which can come in a variety of color and flavors depending upon the fish from which they are derived. Hackleback caviar is black caviar, but actually may be found in a dark gray color too. If you’re used to small types of roe, hackleback caviar can make quite an interesting change, since the eggs are much larger. Connoisseurs of caviar especially find the deep and nutlike taste of this roe appealing. It’s often sold in place of sevruga sturgeon caviar caught in the Caspian Sea because the flavor is remarkably similar. Even though the price of hackleback caviar is lower, this is not exactly an inexpensive food. A single ounce (28.35 g) will cost at least $15 US Dollars (USD). An ounce is the traditional serving size, since caviar has a very strong and salty taste, so you can see it can be quite expensive to serve it to a large group of people. It doesn’t come close to approaching the price to Beluga caviar, often considered the highest quality caviar. Beluga costs about ten times the amount of hackleback. Thus comparatively, this American caviar is relatively cheap. You can find hackleback caviar on the Internet and in gourmet food stores, where it is frequently sold in tins. One of the reasons, besides price, for the rise in popularity of hackleback, which may sometimes be sold as “Russian Style Caviar,” is that overfishing of the Caspian Sea has led to a major Russian caviar shortage. Many are very pleased with the taste similarity between hackleback and servruga, and are glad a less expensive alternative can be substituted for the increasingly difficult to find true Russian versions.